Friday, October 3, 2014

Quick Quiz

Name the person who uttered the following words:"I actually believe that capitalism is the greatest force for prosperity
and opportunity the world has ever known. And I believe in private enterprise -- not government, but
innovators and risk-takers and makers and doers -- driving job
creation".

Was it:

A) Mitt Romney

B) Rand Paul

C) John BoehnerD) None of the above.Answer will be provided in an upcoming post. Meanwhile, anyone who can Name That Conservative within the next 10 minutes will receive a free subscription to Sardonicky.

Update: Congratulations to Fred Drumlevitch, who quickly came up with the correct answer: D) Barack Obama. For anybody interested, Barry made his neoliberal remarks to a group of business students in Chicago yesterday. You can find the entire transcript on the White House website, which I refuse to link to again for fear they might think I'm an obsessive fan.

Somehow, I just knew --- after his actions these past few years, those words Karen quoted are entirely in-character for him, and I'd have to be non-sentient to not just know that they must have come from his mouth.

Hell, I wouldn't even be surprised were I to hear that he has received/ is receiving donations from the Koch brothers. And whether or not that's the case with respect to the past or the present, there's always the future!

The speech is a potpourri of things (such as raising the minimum wage, repairing infrastructure, etc.) that should have been done long ago and done much more aggressively than he proposes, lumped together with a great deal of standard neo-con/neo-liberal economic rationalizations for them. Consider these excerpts from his speech:

"If we raise the minimum wage, we won’t just put more money in workers’ pockets; they’ll spend it at local businesses, who’ll hire more people. In the two years since I first asked Congress to raise the minimum wage, 13 states and D.C. have raised theirs. More business owners are joining them. And it’s on the ballot in five states this November, including Illinois. Recent surveys show that a majority of small business owners support a gradual increase to $10.10 an hour. A survey just last week showed that nearly two-thirds of employers thought the minimum wage should go up in their state – and more than half of them think it should be at least $10. So let’s do this. Let’s agree that nobody who works full-time in America should ever have to raise a family in poverty. Let’s give America a raise, and make our economy stronger."

"If we make sure a woman is paid equal to her efforts, it won’t just give women a boost; it’ll give their families and the entire economy a boost. Women now outpace men in college degrees, and graduate degrees, but they often start their careers with lower pay, and that gap grows over time. Let’s inspire and support more women in growing fields of science, technology, engineering and math. Let’s catch up to 2014, pass a fair pay law, and make our economy stronger."

"If we rebuild roads and bridges, we won’t just put construction workers and engineers on the job; we’ll revitalize communities, connect people to jobs, and make it easier for businesses to ship goods around the world. And we can pay for it with tax reform that cuts rates on businesses, and closes wasteful loopholes, making it even more attractive for companies to invest and create jobs here at home. Let’s do this and make our economy stronger."

In these cases and more, the pro-business economic rationalization overwhelmingly dominates.

I tried to listen to his speech at Northwestern after reading Karen's blog post this morning. I couldn't make it all the way through. I drifted off at times- due to my subconscious trying to spare my brain the confusion and pain of listening to a compulsive liar. Other times, when my attention accidentally drifted back and absorbed the deceit, my body began to experience the typical signs of anger: teeth grinding, fists clenching, flushing, paling, prickly sensations, numbness, sweating, muscle tensions and temperature changes.

So I quit listening.

Karen- thank you for all of your great writing and thinking; we are all better off because of your efforts.

Did you catch this about Tony Hsieh (of Zappos fame) and the failure of his downtown project?http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2014/10/02/tony_hsieh_and_the_downtown_project_the_dark_side_of_a_las_vegas_techtopia.htmlSeems like the kind of guy Obama would be saluting.It may come as a shock, but success as an entrepreneur does not make you qualified to... transform Downtown Las Vegas into the most community-focused large city in the world. We are doing that by inspiring and empowering people to follow their passions to create a vibrant, connected urban core.We’ve allocated $350 million to aid in the revitalization of Downtown Las Vegas. We’re investing $100 million in real estate, $100 million in residential development, $50 million in small businesses, $50 million in education, and $50 million in tech startups through the VegasTech Fund.It does qualify you to write grandiose mission statements, however.And yes, they were bringing in Teach for America. Of course.